The Vatican seems like an unlikely pit stop for a US politician trying to wage a political revolution. But with just four days to go before the critical New York primary, Bernie Sanders’ detour to Rome, where he will participate in a Vatican-sponsored conference on economic and social issues on Friday, represents an opportunity for the Vermont senator to align himself with a man whose scathing criticisms of capitalism and income inequality closely resemble his own: Pope Francis.

No meeting with the pope is planned, a Vatican spokesman confirmed. But the trip gives the leftwing candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, who is aiming for an unlikely upset over frontrunner Hillary Clinton, a chance to shine among Catholic voters, especially white Catholics who are considered the pre-eminent swing voters of any presidential election.

Which issue do you want US election candidates to discuss?

“Clearly this pope is very popular and I think that Sanders is correct in saying his views are closer to the pope than most other candidates’ views,” said Thomas Reese, a Jesuit priest and senior analyst for the National Catholic Reporter. “Everyone likes to wrap themselves in the aura of some popular person, so this isn’t a big surprise.”

Experts have said that there is no easy way to categorise the US “Catholic vote” given its breadth. Since one in five Americans identify as Catholics, the so-called Catholic bloc votes mirror how the country votes. However, there are some trends: Hispanic Catholics overwhelmingly support Democratic candidates over Republicans in presidential elections and white Catholics who identify as moderates are considered swing voters. Exit polls suggest that the “Catholic vote” has gone with the winner of the popular vote in presidential elections since 1972, including in 2008 for Barack Obama.

A poll by Pew Forum released in January suggests that Clinton has an edge among Catholics, with 69% of Catholic Democrats saying she would make a great or good president, compared with 46% who say the same about Sanders.

While it might have been considered unimaginable for a progressive candidate like Sanders to seek approval from a pope over the past few decades – given the church’s vehement opposition to same-sex marriage, contraception and abortion – Sanders’ move shows that Francis’s popularity (nine in 10 American Catholics have a favourable view of him) and outspoken advocacy for the poor and disenfranchised, and his environmentalism, are considered by Sanders to be more important than other ideological differences. Whether voters might be swayed by the appearance of Francis’s approval for Sanders – he has also openly questioned whether Donald Trump is a true Christian – is more difficult to predict.

“When Bernie Sanders first got in the race, he wanted to air and elevate some issues like economic inequality and push Hillary Clinton to the left ... He’s probably back to that plan, so this is a good thing for Bernie to do,” said Charlie Cook, editor and publisher of the non-partisan Cook Political Report.

Pope Francis will be engaged in a high-profile trip to Lesbos on Saturday, where his presence will highlight the plight of Syrian and other refugees who are stranded on the Aegean island. Photograph: Pacific Pres/Rex/Shutterstock

That does not mean that Sanders could not face pitfalls in his unorthodox foray into Vatican City. Unlike the carefully choreographed trip to Berlin by then candidate Obama in 2008, in which he sought to prove his foreign policy credentials in front of a crowd of tens of thousands of adoring Germans, Sanders’ decision to head to the Vatican raised eyebrows even before his arrival in Rome.

Far from addressing the pope himself, Sanders will be offering remarks at an academic conference organised by the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences, which is also hosting the Bolivian president, Evo Morales, and the Ecuadorian president, Rafael Correa. In Italy, the conference has sarcastically been dubbed the International Congress of Socialists in the Holy See.

Last week, after news of Sanders’ visit broke, the head of the academy, Margaret Archer, told Bloomberg News that Sanders had broken protocol by essentially inviting himself, a charge that was then denied by the council’s chancellor, who defended Sanders.

The venue holding the conference is so small that reporters covering the event will be huddled around a TV airing the remarks from a separate room and will not be able to direct questions to the participants.

Furthermore, the trip is taking Sanders off the domestic campaign trail during a critical weekend when he could have been pressing flesh in upstate New York, where his anti-trade views could resonate, or delegate-rich Pennsylvania, which votes on 26 April.

According to the conference agenda, Sanders will be delivering remarks on the “urgency of a moral economy”. He will be preceded by an Italian politician and member of the pontifical academy named Rocco Buttiglione, who served as a minister in the government of conservative prime minister Silvio Berlusconi and whose nomination as a European commissioner was withdrawn in 2004 because of opposition to his views against homosexuality.

The Vatican’s chief spokesman, Father Federico Lombardi, on Thursday ruled out a meeting between Sanders and Francis – the American democratic socialist and the the unpredictable Argentinian pope who called unfettered capitalism the “dung of the devil” – saying none had been planned, a fact that some Vatican watchers said reflected Francis’s desire to avoid looking overly political. Francis will be engaged in a high-profile trip to Lesbos on Saturday, where his presence will highlight the plight of Syrian and other refugees who are stranded on the Aegean island.

“On the one hand,” Reese said, “the last thing the pope wants is a photo-op with a candidate this close to an election. On the other hand, any US senator who comes to Rome would get a chance to see the pope and have a picture taken, get a rosary and a blessing.”

MISSION STATEMENT

To share with friends and brethren The Gospel of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ (the Everlasting Gospel), and to prepare a people to stand when He returns to redeem His remnant.

Also, to share relevant information of current events, and to show how they relate to prophecy; By means of articles, editorials, opinions, scripture readings, and poetry.

The Catholic-Judeo U. S. Supreme Court

5 Roman Catholics, 1 Episcopal (RC Light), and 3 Jews

Provision for the propagation of papal falsehoods

...our country shall repudiate every principle of its Constitution as a Protestant and republican government, and shall make provision for the propagation of papal falsehoods and delusions, then we may know that the time has come for the marvelous working of Satan and that the end is near. Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 5, p.451.

The Fresh Air Fund

THE FRESH AIR FUND, an independent, not-for-profit agency, has provided free summer vacations to more than 1.7 million New York City children from low-income communities since 1877. (Click on image to donate)

Sunset Calendar

Click on Picture for Sunset- Sunrise Calendar for your location.

Freedom

We do not have freedom because the Constitution gives it to us; The Creator gives us our rights. The Constitution was written to keep the government from taking our rights away. We have rights granted by God and not by men; such rights as life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

THE HOLY BIBLE

The King James Version is in the public domain in the United States; you may copy and quote from it without restriction. The other Bibles at the Bible Gateway: (http://www.biblegateway.com), however, are not in the public domain, unless otherwise specified.

THE GREAT CONTROVERSY

(The Great Controversy), unveils the often unseen battle between Christ and Satan, and looks ahead to the day sin’s reign will end, and Jesus will rule as King of kings and Lord of lords.

THE SECRET TERRORISTS

"A secret terrorist organization has been working within to destroy America, its Constitution, and everything for which she stands"..(Click on pic)

The Enemy Unmasked

As one looks at the history of nations, from Babylon to Rome to America, it is evident that a Divine hand was protecting and guiding America..(Click on pic)

Foxe's Book of Martyrs

This book by John Foxe (1517 - 1587) is beyond doubt one of the great Christian classics in English- Read it on line (Click on Picture)

Fifty Years in The Church of Rome

The life story of Charles Chiniquy, who was a priest in the Roman Catholic Church for 25 years.

Earth's Final Hours

Click on image to read this book.

The Two Babylons

Where did the practices and beliefs of Roman Catholicism come from? In this scholarly classic, first published over eighty years ago, Alexander Hislop reveals that many Roman Catholic teachings did not originate with Christ or the Bible, but were adopted from ancient pagan Babylonian religion, and given Christian names. (Click on image to read online).

TOO LONG IN THE SUN

The book "Too Long in the Sun", traces pagan sun worship from the time of the Chaldeans, through the civilizations of the Babylonians, the Medo-Persians, the Grecians, the Romans and right on through present day, documenting its influence upon modern day "Christianity."

ELLEN G. WHITE

The greatest want of the world is the want of men, --men who will not be bought or sold; men who in their inmost souls are true and honest, men who do not fear to call sin by its right name; men whose conscience is as true to duty as the needle to the pole, men who will stand for the right though the heavens fall. -Education, p. 57. (1903)

Martin Luther

“The papacy is the seat of the true and real antichrist personally I declare that I owe the Pope no other obedience than that to Antichrist."

Abraham Lincoln

I see a very dark cloud in our horizon. And that cloud is coming from Rome.

John Adams

"If ever an association of people deserved eternal damnation, on this earth and in hell, it is this society of Loyola." (1816)

BENJAMIN FRANKLIN

GENERAL MARQUIS DE LAFAYETTE

It is my opinion that if the liberties of this country — the United States — are destroyed, it will be by the subtlety of the Roman Catholic Jesuit priests, for they are the most crafty, dangerous enemies to civil and religious liberty. They have instigated most of the wars in Europe.

Edmund Burke

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."

Luigi Desanctis

“In a country where there are Jesuits, they must either rule or the country must go to ruin… it is they who rule the world.”

GALILEO GALILEI

I do not feel obliged to believe that the same God who has endowed us with sense, reason, and intellect has intended us to forgo their use.

Miguel de Cervantes

"Our greatest foes, and those we must chiefly combat, are within."

Frederick Douglass

The life of the nation is secure only while the nation is honest, truthful, and virtuous.

Eugenio María de Hostos

"I wish that they will say: In that island (Puerto Rico) a man was born who loved truth, desired justice, and worked for the good of men." Hostos wrote his own epitaph.

Sir Alexander Fraser Tytler

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largess of the public treasury. From that time on the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury, with the results that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world's great civilizations has been 200 years. These nations have progressed through this sequence: From bondage to spiritual faith; from spiritual faith to great courage; from courage to liberty; from liberty to abundance; from abundance to selfishness; from selfishness to complacency; from complacency to apathy; from apathy to dependency; from dependency back again to bondage.”

Arturo Alfonso (Arthur) Schomburg

"The modern school without systematic lectures turns out many graduates who lack retention. No sooner has the sound of the word left their teacher's lips, the subject has been forgotten"

John Emerich Edward Dalberg-Acton (Lord Acton)

"I cannot accept your canon that we are to judge Pope and King unlike other men with a favourable presumption that they did no wrong. If there is any presumption, it is the other way, against the holders of power, increasing as the power increases. Historic responsibility has to make up for the want of legal responsibility. Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men, even when they exercise influence and not authority: still more when you superadd the tendency or certainty of corruption by full authority. There is no worse heresy than the fact that the office sanctifies the holder of it."

Pastor Martin Niemöller

First they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out, because I was not a Jew. Then they came for the Communists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out, because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out for me.

U.S.M.C.Major General Smedley Butler

“War is just a racket,” “A racket is best described, I believe, as something that is not what it seems to the majority of people. Only a small inside group knows what it is about. It is conducted for the benefit of the very few at the expense of the masses.” (Click on photo to read his book)

MARTIN LUTHER KING JR.

I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made straight and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.

EDWARD R. MURROW

We cannot defend freedom abroad by deserting it at home.

John F. Kennedy

“The very word 'secrecy' is repugnant in a free and open society; and we are as a people inherently and historically opposed to secret societies, to secret oaths and to secret proceedings. We decided long ago that the dangers of excessive and unwarranted concealment of pertinent facts far outweighed the dangers which are cited to justify it. ”

THEODORE ROOSEVELT

"To announce that there must be no criticism of the President, or that we are to stand by the President right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but morally treasonable to the American public."

W.E.B. DUBOIS

"Drunk with power, we (the U.S.) are leading the world to hell in a new colonialism with the same old human slavery, which once ruined us, to a third world war, which will ruin the world."

JOHN V. LINDSAY

There are men – now in power in this country – who do not respect dissent, who cannot cope with turmoil, and who believe that the people of America are ready to support repression as long as it is done with a quiet voice and a business suit.

HENRY FORD

It is well enough that people of the nation do not understand our banking and monetary system, for if they did, I believe there would be a revolution before tomorrow morning.

MARCUS M. GARVEY

"We Negroes believe in the God of Ethiopia, the everlasting God -- God the Son, God the Holy Ghost, the one God of all ages. That is the God in whom we believe, but we shall worship him through the spectacles of Ethiopia."

SIR WINSTON CHURCHILL

"Men occasionally stumble over the truth, but most of them pick themselves up and hurry off as if nothing ever happened."

ALAN BARTH

"The notion that the church, the press, and the universities should serve the state is essentially a Communist notion. In a free society these institutions must be wholly free -- which is to say that their function is to serve as checks upon the state."

EUGEN WEBER

"Wolves are wolves even if you choose to pretend they are chickens."

Craig Hulet

Is it progress when a cannibal uses a knife and fork?

Charles Goyette

"Just lay your freedom at out our feet, and we'll take care of everything for you."

GEORGE SANTAYANA

"He Who Does Not Remember History Is Condemned To Repeat It"

GEORGE ORWELL

"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act."

ALDOUS HUXLEY

"...Ecclesiasticism without Christianity, the discipline of a monastic rule, not for God's sake or in order to achieve personal salvation but for the sake of the State and for the greater glory and power of the demagogue turned leader - this was the goal for which the systematic moving of the masses was to lead" (Brave New World Revisited, Huxley, 44-45)

Richard Maybury

Washington... has become an alien city-state that rules America, and much of the rest of the world, in the way that Rome ruled the Roman Empire.

Frank Zappa

"The illusion of freedom [in America] will continue as long as it's profitable to continue the illusion. At the point where the illusion becomes too expensive to maintain, they will just take down the scenery, they will pull back the curtains, they will move the tables and chairs out of the way and you will see the brick wall at the back of the theater."

Sinclair Lewis

"When fascism comes to America, it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross."

Sabbath Commercial for Television

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zfgNbEzJ7ZY&feature=player_embedded

James D. Standish, Esq.

"The United Nations can be a tool to advance the cause of religious freedom."

THE HOLY INQUISITON

"Remember The Inquisition; It won't be long before the fires are ignited all over again". Arsenio [2007]

Pierre Teilhard de Chardin S.J.

“The fate of mankind, as well as of religion, depends upon the emergence of a new faith in the future.”

Hillary R. Clinton

"What difference, at this point, does it make?!” -- At congressional panel on the U.S. Consulate attack in Benghazi, Libya, on Sept. 11, 2012.

Albert Pike

"To you, Sovereign Grand Instructors General, we say this, that you may repeat it to the Brethren of the 32nd, 31st and 30th degrees: 'the Masonic Religion should be, by all of us initiates of the high degrees, maintained in the purity of the LUCIFERIAN Doctrine. If Lucifer were not god, would Adonay (Jesus)... calumniate (spread false and harmful statements about) him?...Yes Lucifer is God..."

Fr. Peter-Hans Kolvenbach, S.J.

In fact, the four hundred and fifty years of the Society's history have been a record of fruitful association with the laity, in which the Ignatian spirit has manifested itself in the Church in many forms, and it continues to do so with vigor today.

Barack H. Obama

"Those nations that refuse to meet their obligations will be isolated, and denied the opportunity that comes with international integration" @ Prague 4/8/10

Pat Robertson

"The time has come when we must lay aside minor points of doctrinal differences and focus on the centralization of our faith in the Lord Jesus Christ."

JIMMY CARTER

"The policy from the White House has been to allocate funds to religious institutions, even those that channel those funds exclusively to their own particular group of believers in a particular religion," Carter said. "As a traditional Baptist, I've always believed in separation of church and state and honoured that premise when I was president, and so have all other presidents, I might say, except this one."

Dr. José Manuel Rodriguez Delgado

"We need a program of psychosurgery for political control of our society. The purpose is physical control of the mind. Everyone who deviates from the given norm can be surgically mutilated."

Saul Alinsky

"Think globally, act locally"

Joseph Ratzinger

"The Pope enjoys, by divine institution, "supreme, full, immediate, and universal power in the care of souls"

GEORGE W. BUSH

"Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists."

WILLIAM J. LEVADA

"I'm past the deer-in-the-headlights phase,"

CHARLES EDWARD COUGHLIN

On this earth you must belong to the church militant or get the hell out of it. That's the right word. You're either with me or against me' There is no middle ground in this battle between Christ and the anti-Christ. If you step out of (the battle), you're worse than those boys who ran off to Norway, Sweden, those boys who deserted the government. You're deserters, rotten deserters.

ROBERT SCHULLER

"It is time for Protestants to go to the shepherd (the pope) and say, `What do we have to do to come home?'" Dr. Robert Schuller, Los Angeles Herald Examiner, Sept. 19, 1987.

ADAM WEISHAUPT

Of all the means I know to lead men, the most effectual is a concealed mystery. The hankering of the mind is irresistible.

DAVID SPANGLER

No one will enter the New World Order unless he or she will make a pledge to worship Lucifer. No one will enter the New Age unless he will take a Luciferian Initiation.

ZBIGNIEW BRZENZINSKI

Soon it will be possible to assert almost continuous surveillance over every citizen and maintain up-to-date complete files containing even the most personal information about the citizen...

HENRY KISSINGER

"We will get a New World Order. We may not get it in our generation, but if we do not get it in our generation, we will get it in the next generation."